Caffeine: Friend or Foe?

I've been doing a bit of reading on the subject, since I've been cultivating my very own addiction to caffeine since September '05, and I think the answer is: Friend. But only if you're not overly sensitive. My recent discovery is that coffee right before class (class being at 5:30pm) = a restless night of sleep. Not even tossing and turning, but just plain... wakeful. Not very refreshing, lemme tell ya.

How does caffeine keep us awake, you ask? What a good question!
Not that I've gotten this far in my studies as yet, but this site is pretty useful. It seems that our little friend increases our dopamine levels, making us happy (in the same way that cocaine and heroin do! Yippee!), and interferes with our absorption of adenosine, which is the hormone that puts us in a deep healthy sleep. Without that hormone at sufficient levels, we never really go beyond a light, wakeful sleep. So we think we're resting (sometimes)... but we're not. How thrilling for all of us. And the worst part is how long it stays in our system - one site actually describes it as half-lives (how long it takes for one half of an amount of material to decompose, or in this case, pass out of the system): according to the HowStuffWorks (link above), it takes 6 hours for half of the caffeine to pass out of your system. So if you drink coffee at 5:30pm like moi, 11:30pm is not going to be a very good bedtime because half of that caffeine is still floating around in there.

However, buttloads of studies have been done on the possible harmful side effects of caffeine, and other than those with other issues already (such as heart problems etc.), caffeine is pretty much a non-issue. Caffeine and Women's Health is a great piece that summarizes a few decades' worth of studies. It also has a little breakdown on how much caffeine is in what:Another thing to note: there are products out there advertising "natural" caffeine, usually from the Guarana plant... yeah, that's just caffeine. And it's no better or worse than other caffeine. And in fact, as quoted from the National Geographic site, the ingredients might list caffeine AND Guarana, which means you're getting two doses of caffeine! Of course, that might be a good thing for some of us. :p

So, what pretty much everyone wonders is: How much is too much? On average, 3-4 cups of regular coffee per day (at only 8 oz per cup), or 200-300 milligrams of caffeine should be your max. If you drink espresso instead (as I do every morning), that is equivalent to 6 oz or less of espresso. In case you wondered, each espresso shot is 2 oz, as told to me by Starbucks. Yes, I asked. So a "tall" has 2 oz, a "grande" has 4 oz, and a "venti" has 6 oz unless you ask for something else.

There is also the anecdoctal evidence that caffeine makes yer boobs hurt. Plenty of sites mention cutting down on caffeine if your boobs hurt, but none mention WHY they hurt! Harrumph. I'll find it later. I wonder if guys' boobs hurt too?

Well, do they, punks?